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Saturday, 29 December 2007

A good time was had by all. The boys were very excited and loved all their presents. Andrew got Scalextric for his main present and John got Warhammer Dwarfs, which will keep him busy assembling and painting them for ages. Dinner went well and we all had a great day.

We haven't done very much since, just relaxed and played their new games. Getting ready now for Mum and my sister coming for New Year.

Tuesday, 25 December 2007

Had a very hectic day running around getting things done, but finally all is ready. Kids are in bed just waiting on Santa to arrive. Their advent activity today was to make a cake and get ready for Santa. The joke was: Spell hard water with 3 letters - I C E!!

Sunday, 23 December 2007

Day 22 activity was to watch the DVD Polar Express. This was the first time I have watched the film. It is a definate aaahhh! type of film and the boys enjoyed it. The joke was: How do cats greet each other at Christmas? - Have a furry merry Christmas and a Happy Mew Year!!

Day 23 they had to make pom pom santa and reindeer, but as I was taking Mum to meet my sister, they haven't made them yet. Another task for tomorrow! The joke was: What Christmas carol is the favourite of parents? - Silent Night.

Day 17 is of the boys with the silk painting pictures they did as part of their advent activities. The pictures were ones my sister brought back from Germany several years ago. The boys loved doing this.

The prompt for day 18 was Food. I love eating cake and chocolate at Christmas, but I am going to try and be good this year and not eat too much!!

The prompt for Day 11 was your Tree, as I had taken photos of my tree last year I wanted something a bit different. I like this paper with lots of trees on it, so have printed out the words of O Christmas Tree.

Day 12 is of Andrew with his Snowman paper chain, which was one of the boys activities from their Advent calendar.

Today was a quiet day in their Advent Calenders as I thought we might need a bit of catch up time. They could choose their favourite Christmas game on the computer to play. Joke was Why did Santa spell Christmas N-O-E?: Because the angel said 'No L'!!

Monday, 17 December 2007

Day 7 is about shopping - its much easier doing it on the Internet now.

Day 8 is about the weather. I always think it looks nice if it snows at Christmas, but not so good if you are travelling. The inspiration for the tag on this page came from Tim Holtz 12 Tags for Christmas.

Day 9 is from my Advent Hope readings.

Prompt for Day 10 was wrapping paper - so kept this page nice and simple.

The boys Advent activity today was a Quiz about Christmas songs. The joke was: What do you get when you cross an apple with a Christmas tree - A pineapple!!

Sunday, 16 December 2007

Day 14 of the boys advent activities was to make small Christmas trees out of card. Day 15 was to put up the tree and to read the poem Twas the Night Before Christmas. Day 16 (today) was to do silk painting pictures. These were really good, they were pre-printed Christmas scenes and the boys really enjoyed doing them.

I have managed to do another page in the Christmas Journal, it is of the boys with their Hama Beads decorations.

Thursday, 13 December 2007

Yesterday's activity was to make a Snowman paper chain and I have to admit we have not got round to doing it yet. Joke was: Why does Santa have 3 gardens?: so he can ho-ho-ho!

Today's activity was to make up a Christmas Alphabet, with a word for each letter of the alphabet that has something to do with Christmas. Joke was: What did the guests sing at the Eskimo party?: Freeze a jolly good fellow!!

Tuesday, 11 December 2007

Well yesterday's activity was a bit of a miss. We tried to make snowglobes using water with glitter in it - but they didn't work. Never mind the kids said they enjoyed trying. Joke was: What do elves learn in school?: The elp - abet!!

Today was Andrew's school play, so for an activity I just directed them to a Chistmas website to play a game. Joke was: What do you call a cat on the beach at Christmastime?: Sandy Claus!!

Tuesday, 4 December 2007

I finally managed to get started on my Christmas Journal for Shimelle's Journal 2007. I have done my first page, which is like a Manifesto or declaration of intent. The journalling reads:

I Intend to keep a Journal of my Christmas this year. This will be my second year of doing this.

I Hope that by doing this I can record the things that are different and the things that remain the same each year.

I Believe that Christmas is a special time, which it is good to remember the birth of our Lord Jesus, and the Hope that He brings to our lives.

I am finding the prompts a bit tricky this year as so far they have been the same as last year and I dont want my Journal to be an exact copy of last years, so I may have to change them about a bit and do some pages differently.

The book I am using is a really nice one that I got from Tearcraft. It is tied with red cord and is a lovely red Christmassy colour. I have still to do something on the cover and do a title page and pages 2,3 and 4, but at least I've started.

Didn't get around to posting yesterday. In their Advent calendar yesterday the boys got a Christmas code worksheet. Joke was: Why did the snowman cross the road? To melt on the other side!

Andrew's favourite Christmas song is The 12 Days of Christmas, so today they had to type up the words of the song and find pictures or draw pictures to go with it. Andrew has already done his - he loved it. Todays joke: Why did the reindeer fly over the mountain?: he couldn't fly under it!!

Sunday, 2 December 2007

Day 2 of our Advent calendar. Today the boys had to paint a Santa candle holder. They enjoyed doing this. John thought it would be good practice for painting his Warhammer army which he is hoping to get for Christmas.

Saturday, 1 December 2007

I can't quite believe today is the first of December and Christmas will soon be upon us again. In addition to having their usual chocolate Advent calendars this year, I got this one in B&Q yesterday, altered it slightly. I have put activities in each day and a joke for each day for the boys to do. They have also covered a ring binder folder to make a Christmas Journal to keep the various activity sheets in. When each day has been done I will cover that days drawer with paper.

Todays activity was to complete a Christmas maze which I had downloaded from the Internet. Today's joke was

Where do snowmen go to dance? - Snowballs!

The children are getting on better than me as I have not actually started a Journal yet for this year. I am going to follow Shimelle's Journal, although I will probably change some of the prompts as I did it last year. Hope to get this started either tonight or tomorrow (maybe!!).

Saturday, 17 November 2007

Oh dear what a bad blogger I've been - its been ages since I last posted. I really dont know where the time goes to. I always feel busy but not actually sure what I achieve! At the moment life just seems to trudge along without anything much exciting happening. There is talk at work of the council cutting classroom asst hours, which would mean my job dropping to only 5 hours a week - which hardly seems worthwhile. I am always feeling tired and the house looks like a tip. To try and counter all these negative thoughts I have signed up for the Wellness Journey over on Big Picture Scrapbooking. Hopefully this will help me get back on track with lots of things.

Here is my front cover of a 6 x6 album I am making for it.

The only page I have done so far is this one - my three motivations for doing the class.

My motivations are - to establish a fitness schedule, to gain control over my weight and diet and to reduce stress and gain a more positive outlook on life.

So far I have managed to get to AquaFit for the last two weeks and am trying to walk more and not take the car as much. I am trying to cut down on biccies and cakes but that ones not doing as well. I think I need to look out my old Weight Watchers points and try that again.

Friday, 2 November 2007

Watch out there's an alien about! You dont need to worry too much - its only Andrew dressed up for his Cub party this week. Thankfully it was a simple costume he wanted this year. He enjoyed his party.

This has been a busy week, but I'm not too sure what I've actually achieved. We have two additions to the family - two goldfish. Well one is actually black and the other gold and silver. Its been several years since we last had goldfish and Andrew wanted one, so now we have two. Last time we just has a simple round bowl, but not this time, no. The tanks are now bigger and have a mini-filter in it. I wonder if the fish will actually last any longer though!!! Watch this space.

Tuesday, 23 October 2007

One of the challenges this weekend was to make cards. I haven't made any for ages so I decided to do one today. I made this card using scraps of paper and then stamped and embossed the house design.

The rest of today has been spent getting the lounge ready for the decorators coming tomorrow, with the result you cant actually get moving anywhere in the rest of the house. Hopefully they will only take three days then we can get back to normal!

Monday, 22 October 2007

That's the holidays over, went back to work today. Kids back to school. Roll on the next holiday.

Yesterday I spent almost all day trying to do an acetate album for the cyber crop, thankfully I finally managed it. This was the first acetate album I have tried to do. It was quite fiddly but I like the end result but not sure how many more I will attempt. I used the pictures from our crop party weekend at my sisters for it.

Sunday, 21 October 2007

Another couple of LOs from the cyber crop. This one was for a class by Papermaze. The photo is of John reading the last Harry Potter book, which he went and bought at midnight - he managed to persuade his Auntie Karen to take him. The paper used is Sassafraslass Serendipity Crimson Dots and Exuberant.

This one was for a class by one of my team mates, Sarah, it involved painting and using a mask. Very messy but a lot of fun! The photos are from Johns trip to Legoland last summer.

Saturday, 20 October 2007

One of the highlights of the cyber crop is the Mystery Kit. You buy a kit, the contents of which are a complete surprise, then you have to make something using only the contents of the kit. This time I made a concertina mini book of a visit John made to a Dinosaur Exhibition several years ago. I really liked the kit this year, mine came from Crafty Pastimes.